


Colder The Heart (Warmer The Gun)

by iKain2



Series: I Don't Want To Be Your Super Hero No More [3]
Category: Vindictus
Genre: Alternate Universe - Kai Can Speak Sentences With More Than Three Words In Them, Alternate Universe - Kai Is Nicer But Still Kinda Emotionally Constipated, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author's Odd Sense of Humor, Background Relationships, Betrayal, Canon-Typical Violence, Crack Treated Seriously, Domestic Fluff, Drama, Espionage, F/F, F/M, Fiona Is Profound, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, My Hurk Is Not Complete Without Shitty Pick Up Lines Inserted Everywhere, Original Character Death(s), Possibly Unhealthy Relationship, Reconciliation, Secrets, See If You Can Spot The Pick Up Lines, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 20:39:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6581335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iKain2/pseuds/iKain2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is it hot in here or is it just me? No, don’t look at me like that… seriously, we should get another fan. It’s like eighty degrees right now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

"We're out of milk." Reaching inside the refrigerator, an already-dressed-for-work Kai shoved aside a six-pack of blueberry yogurt, one carton of eggs, and a tub of Miracle Whip in order to take out two chilled bananas.

"I think… I used up the last of it for last night's dinner?" Dressed in nothing except for a pair of loose boxers, Hurk sleepily sipped from a mug of industrial-grade black coffee from where he was leaning against the tiny kitchenette counter. "I'll take a longer lunch break today and do some grocery shopping, I guess."

"Alright." Kai let the refrigerator door close on its own and passed one banana over to Hurk, who had set down his mug of coffee in order to eat the fruit.

"…Is it hot in here, or is it just me?" A banana peel sailed smoothly into the lidless trashcan off to the side.

Kai glanced at the clock ticking above the kitchen sink – a cheery 5:37 A.M. – and raised an eyebrow. Usually it took until 7 A.M. before the man was coherently awake enough to start joking around.

"No, don't look at me like that… seriously, we should get another fan. It's like 80 degrees right now. It's too _early_ to be 80 degrees." Hurk drained the rest of his coffee and rubbed at his still-bleary eyes.

"It's August." Kai dropped his own banana peel into the trashcan with a low sigh. The heatwave currently sweltering through Rocheste was breaking so many records it was just plain ridiculous, and it seemed as if it was going to continue to do so for an indeterminate amount of time. "I'll see if I can borrow another fan from… somewhere."

Kai found himself with an armful of groaning, sweat-soaked boyfriend. He let the other man hold him for a few seconds longer than usual before stepping away and straightening his clothes. The pout he got in return made his lips twitch into a small smile.

"I've got to get to work, and I can't do that if I'm covered in your sweat."

Halfway to the door, Kai was pulled into a wet kiss that sadly ended much too soon. Hurk had a soft look of absolute fondness on his face when he'd pulled away and handed over a well-loved violin case that had been resting against the wall by the door.

"Then I'll see you tonight, _honeybee_ … hey, if I get back early enough, I'll make enchiladas. We haven't had that in a while, and with this heatwave going on, I've got a hankering for some good Mexican and ice cold beer. How about it?"

"Sounds great."


	2. Chapter Two

"I can't believe yeh two managed t' convince me to giv' a free ride 'round town on m'day off, yeh saucy vixens! And t' a fancy-pants mall, on the busiest weekend in all of history, too!"

Two young women giggled mischievously in the back seat of the black-colored, unassuming 2007 Ford Fusion at the driver's half-hearted scowl directed towards them from the rearview mirror.

"We're not _really_ blackmailing you. Think of it like… like a paying off a favor that Gallagher owes us for ruining Shayla's birthday cake! But, since you know and we know that he'd never do anything about it, you're the next best thing to an apology, _hehe_ ~" Clodagh's fingers twisted a lock of her vibrant red hair as she adopted an expression of complete innocence.

"Poor Aislinn and Fenella spent so long on that cake, too." Tieve's serene face was also the picture-picture image of angelic incorruptibility.

"But _why_ me? Why not git Keaghan and Arthyen instead? They're _yer_ damn boyfriends!" The driver beat his forehead against the steering wheel in frustration. An angry honk from the car behind sent him sitting back upright and turning the car down a relatively empty urban street.

"Yeah, but Gallagher's _your_ boyfriend now, so you're the only one who can pay back his debt."

"For fuck's sake, _we've onl_ —"

The front of the car caved in with a massive **_CRUNCH!_** as a giant pair of white and black pinstriped legs and boots slammed through the hood. The airbags deployed immediately, protecting the driver, Clodagh and Tieve from much harm.

Only the driver was conscious after the whiplash, however.

An enormous fist wrapped in gold jewelry embedded with sapphire gems smashed through the windshield and airbags, snagging the collar of the driver's uniform and dragging him forward. The seatbelt was the only thing keeping him in the car as the man scrambled to get his combat knife and pistols out of the secret compartment by the car door.

The driver blindly lashed out at the hand with his knife, stabbing the wrist deep enough to get it to let go of him. He dropped back onto his seat and quickly sliced off his broken seatbelt, kicking the driver side's door open and rolling out of the car the moment he was free.

Pushing himself up into a crouch a few meters away, the driver aimed his two standard-issue CBDC pistols at the monstrous pinstripe-wearing, staff-wielding fomor that was howling and staggering towards him. "HQ, I'VE GOT A SIT 245! I NEED BACKUP!"

His headset buzzed with static. The fomor pointed his staff at him and huge bolt of electricity started to form. The driver got off a few shots to the upper torso, but it only seemed to make the fomor even angrier as it outright charged at him now with its electricity-laced staff.

The driver barely dodged in time to avoid getting stabbed. Unfortunately, the fomor managed to stomp on his leg when he was too slow to dodge again, the sheer force and weight breaking through bone and muscle easily.

The fomor grinned through pearly-white teeth, one of his eyes – entirely glowing neon green – widened in insanity as he raised his staff up again, electricity flowing out of him and into the staff once more.

"OH FUCK N—"

* * *

"It's another messy one, Captain. It's got Vehemence's footprints all over it." Medical Examiner Blawynn looked up from the thoroughly-beaten corpse lying on the asphalt with a shake of her head. The cause of death for the poor guy was that he'd more-or-less had been stomped on by a giant foot until his chest was little more than a grotesque pudding of meat and bones. The battered face, surprisingly, was mostly intact.

"I do hope that you did _not_ just make a joke, Doctor."

"Did I? Oh, I see how it may have sounded. My apologies."

First Lieutenant Gwynn of the Royal Police's 6th Precinct studied the scene of the crime with a severe expression. She flipped through the victim's jumbled wallet with nitrile-gloved hands and pulled out a recent driver's license after sorting through a mass of old receipts (for gratuitous amounts of alcohol) and ripped condom wrappers (there was practically an entire box's worth crammed in the wallet, for Morrighan's sake).

"He's one of the Crimson Blades. Until they show up to recover the body, you have full medical authority over the autopsy and the report." With a frown on her face Gwynn gingerly dropped the wallet and the driver's license into an evidence bag, careful not to touch any of the damn condoms wrappers. Her sharp eyes glanced at the two smashed pistols and the scattering of ammunition casings on the ground a few meters away – marked A, B, and C, respectively by the crime scene technicians, before she turned away from the body.

A fair distance away from the crushed remains of the vehicle, a delicate-looking blonde woman was crying into a shock blanket from where she was being looked over by paramedics. Gwynn sighed and pulled off her gloves, handing the stained items to a junior officer that was nearby as she made her way over to the sole survivor of this unfortunate attack.

"I am Lieutenant Gwynn of the Royal Police force. Do you feel well enough to answer a few questions about this incident, or would you prefer to wait until after you've been transported to the hospital?"

"I'm… I'm fine, really. But, you have to do something! Oh, Clodagh… that monster took Clodagh! Right after he… he killed…" The young blonde woman looked up with dark eyes filled with tears and started crying again.

"Alright, miss. You say that he took someone else? Can you describe her or the fomor that took her?"

Gwynn wrote down the victim's statement with a detached air, and once it was clear that she wasn't going to get any more information out of the outright-bawling woman, she gestured for the paramedics to take her to the hospital to check on if her injuries required any more medical attention.

She snapped her pocket notebook shut and tucked her pen back into her pocket. Her cell phone slid into her hand and she dialed a number from memory.

Three rings, and then the voice of a stressed man bit out a terse greeting.

"This better not be another prank, Gallagher, or I'm going to—"

"This is First Lieutenant Gwynn of the Royal Police. There has been an incident involving three of your employees."

A pause, and then a tired sigh.

"Are they alright?"

Gwynn nodded to Dr. Blawynn when the doctor looked over in her direction as she loaded up the mangled body into her coroner's van.

"One of your drivers and two of your general employees were ambushed by Vehemence in the intersection of 7th and Main. The driver fought back and lost, and Vehemence abducted one of the women – Clodagh, I believe her name was. The other woman, Tieve, is on her way to Rocheste Medical Center for minor injuries."

The sudden creak of a chair signaled to Gwynn that the Captain must've shot up from his seat and headed for the door.

"I'm on my way to the hospital right now, and I'll send the usual team over to deal with the debris. Who was driving?"

"Kain."

Gwynn forced herself to remain neutral as she watched the crime scene photographers and techies pack up their equipment. She had some personal issues and grievances with the victim and his perverted boor of a friend because they liked to stir up constant headaches for the Royal Police 6th Precinct, but absolutely no one deserved getting their chest brutally caved in by one of the most notoriously violent agents within the Fomorian Army.

"…Fuck. Okay. I'll send the backup team to clear up the debris. You said he lost. Is he still alive?" It was obvious over the call that the Captain had run a hand over his face.

"No."

The Captain abruptly ended the call.

Gwynn slid her phone back into her pocket and turned to the nearest junior officer.

"Sergeant, keep this scene closed until the Crimson Blades get here. If a Crimson Blade called Gallagher shows up and tries to sneak into the scene, arrest him for obstruction of justice or disturbing the peace and leave him cuffed to the holding cells until another Crimson Blade picks him up."

The Sergeant nodded, confused but knowing full-well to comply with orders that came directly from a superior.

* * *

" **SHE'S THE WRONG DAMN GIRL! YOU USELESS SACK OF EXCREMENT!** " A giant horned fomor clad head to toe in tactical body armor studded with spikes kicked a smaller fomor through a wall of the Fomorian Army's secret Rocheste Headquarters.

"Humans all look the god-damned same! Sorry, alright?! We can just use that one as a hostage or something! An' why're you beatin' on me, Shakarr! It's all Vehemence's fault! He grabbed the wrong one!" The smaller fomor, dressed in an outfit of bondage leather with a spiked muzzle over his face and sporting a silver mohawk, snarled as he got to his feet.

Next to him, a fuming Vehemence was sitting down in a ratty couch and scraping human remains off his white boots. "Your info was wrong, Black Hammer! You told me to get the red head, but the Oracle's the one with the blonde hair! Now we're not going to be able to even be within ten miles of the Oracle without having to face down those damn Blades and the Royal Army!"

" **BOTH OF YOU ARE FUCKING USELESS!** " Shakarr roared loud enough to shake the foundations of the building. " **GET ME BLACK SCAR AND EVERWHITE, NOW!** "

"But, Shakarr—" From a forgotten corner, Kakrish piped up meekly. "They're on their honeymoon, 'member? Y'gave them your blessin' and everything!"

" **DOES IT LOOK LIKE I FUCKING CARE?!** "

Kakrish went flying through another wall.

" **I'm calling in our Covert Operatives!** " With an enraged growl, Shakarr grabbed his hammer. " **You three better fucking get your shit together by the time I get back, or I'll kill you ingrates MYSELF!** "


	3. Chapter Three

"One of our informants have just alerted us to a recent stir of unusual activity at fomorian nightclub called _Foebellow Prairie_. Hunter, I want you on point with Reaper to scope out the extent of this disturbance. Stigma, Earthquake, you're going to be right behind them on high alert. We don't know how what exactly's waiting for us there, so I'm having a few other teams that are going to be on active standby."

Captain Aodhan's terse message cut off from their headsets without further notice.

"So…" From his comfortable position snuggled into Fiona's side on the couch, Lann stared at the three of his friends who had all suddenly stopped eating the lasagna he'd made and had cocked their heads to the side, as if listening to something. "G-good or nah?"

"Oh, no—I mean, yes, your lasagna's really, really good, but we have to leave right now. Duty calls." Karok hurriedly scraped the last of the lasagna on his plate into his mouth and chewed furiously, his sauce-splattered cheeks puffed up like a chipmunk. His fork and plate thunked onto the coffeetable as he stood up from the armchair that he'd claimed and stretched out his legs with a wince, as they'd fallen asleep after sitting down for quite some time.

"Sorry, Lann. We'll be back later to finish this, though. Shouldn't be more than a few hours, hopefully." Evie got up as well and added her plate to the pile on the coffee table, although her face was devoid of any sauce. "Karok, baby, you've got some tomato on your face. Lemme get that."

"…I did _not_ need to see that." Fiona rolled her eyes before pressing a kiss to Lann's forehead and pushing herself up from the couch. "You can leave the dishes in the sink, and when I get back I'll do them."

With a wave, Evie and Karok disappeared past the threshold of Lann's front door.

"Oh, no, it's n-not a problem. I d-don't mind d-doing the dishes."

"Nonsense. You cooked, therefore I'll clean."

"No, n-no, I'm j-j-just going to b-be w-waiting here, so— _mmrph!_ "

Fiona pulled back from her spontaneous kiss, smiling softly as she ran her hand through Lann's hair.

"Turn in early – you deserve it, with how busy the diner's been recently. I'll take care of everything."

"…Alright."

Fiona leaned in for another kiss.

"Fifi, we gotta go! You can bone him later!"

Evie's shouting ruined the mood, as usual. Lann burst out into light laughter, but then pressed a quick kiss onto Fiona's cheek to make up for the untimely interruption.

"Be safe."

"I'll try."

Lann's front door closed behind Fiona. The woman jumped the short railing in front of the apartment and fell down roughly three stories. She hit the ground running towards the SUV parked crookedly in the street and slid into the passenger seat just in time to see Kai and his boyfriend, Hurk, burst out of their apartment. Both men vaulted the railing like she had, but Kai was hauling his ass into the SUV while Hurk slammed a helmet onto his head, gunned the engine of Kai's motorbike, and peeled off in the opposite direction.

Kai slid into the back seat of the SUV the moment the car started moving, the expression on his face just about ready to kill someone through the force of his glare.

"Ooooh, someone got interru—" A fast and sharp turn by the driver of the SUV sent Evie's head almost slamming into the side window. "Hey! Watch it, Kain!"

"Wot? My name's Bran, fo' fuck's sake! Why doesn't anyone 'member my goddamned name! It's always _Kain—this, Kain—that, Gallagher—this, Gallagher—that—_ "

"SHUT UP AND DRIVE, YOU WHINY IDIOT!" Karok shouted as he held onto the grab-handle above the window when their driver skidded around another corner and almost hit a parked car.

"Oi, fuck _you_! You heroes always think yer so tough and shit—!"

A deafening gunshot and a bullet broke through the SUV's roof, right above the driver's head. Fiona, Karok, and Evie turned to look at the back seat, while the driver looked through his rearview mirror.

Kai's special-order .357 Magnum was aimed at the roof of the car, but it moved downwards to aim right at the back of the driver's head after a moment. The barrel trailed a thin line of smoke out of it.

"One more word."

The rest of the incredibly fast drive to CBDC's Headquarters to pick up their weapons and supplies was deadly silent. When all four of them had geared up and piled back into the SUV, their driver had changed into a blank-faced woman that said nothing while doing 70 through a 45 mph zone.

* * *

_Foebellow Prairie_ was a sleazy fomor-run nightclub in the shadiest outskirts of Rocheste. The dilapidated brick-and-cement building had originally been a part of a plan to build affordable housing for homeless youths, but funding had been cut at the last minute, leaving the grimy husk of a building to opportunistic fomorian hands that turned it into a four-level seedy nightclub, illegal drug den, brothel, and now the main base for a small portion of the Fomorian Army.

" _So… where'd your boyfriend run off to?_ " Evie murmured through her headset as she and Kai were slowly but surely crawling through an oversized ventilation shaft. " _I mean, I'm pretty sure he's not a hero._ "

" _…There was an accident at the shop. One of the cars had fallen on top of the workers._ "

" _Oh. Ouch… Hey, move over. I can't see anything._ "

Kai shifted a bit and Evie's head awkwardly crammed underneath his arm. From their cramped position in the ventilation shaft, they were able to peer into the office on the topmost floor of the _Foebellow Prairie_.

In the far corner of the room was a terrified Clodagh handcuffed to a radiator and gagged with duct tape. Sprawled out and cuddling on the couch right next to her were two women dressed in rather revealing garments, and three very sharp swords were resting innocently on the glass coffee table.

One of the women, the one with flaming red hair cut into an angled style and dressed in a tube top and short shorts, giggled and swatted at the teasing hand that ran up her thigh but stopped short shy of actually groping her. The other one, with short silver hair and garbed in a black leather cat-suit and fishnet stockings, whispered something else into the red-head's ears before leaning in for a kiss.

" _Oh la la— Stormbringer and Resonance are a thing._ "

" _Shut up, Reaper._ "

The door to the room slammed open, but the women making out on the couch paid it no mind as a much younger girl with long white pigtails and a glaive bounced into the room, followed by equally-young boy with carefully-styled white hair spinning a dagger between his gloved fingers. The two… kids, for a lack of a better word to describe their youthful appearances, swung themselves up onto the desk, sitting right on top of piles of paper and not caring one bit.

" _Ooh, Jade Fox and Phantom. I haven't seen them so close up before… do you think they're siblings? They kinda look alike._ "

"…"

The door swung open once again and Shakarr stormed in, followed by a snarling black gnoll and a hissing white gnolless.

Shakarr took one look around the room and barked out, "Where the hell is the Executioner?! I told him not to be late!"

"I dunno. Why would we fuckin' care about what the man does in his free time." The Phantom spun his dagger around his fingers casually.

Resonance stopped making out with Stormbringer long enough to say in a seductively lilting voice, "I'll bet he's still busy with that stick-in-the-mud boyfriend of his. Pity they're exclusive and gay as rainbows, because I wouldn't mind being in the middle of _that_ sandwich."

"Oi!" Stormbringer pulled at a lock of Resonance's hair. "Sexy girl is _still_ in your lap!"

"Eww, don't say that." Jade Fox's face screwed up into an expression of juvenile disgust.

Shakarr huffed out an irritated breath. "Humans, control yourselves for Cichol's sake—"

The Phantom's face, too, screwed up at the Resonance's wistful suggestion. "No! He's practically our father-figure!"

"D.I.L.F." Resonance's grin was all teeth and fox-like. "Dad I'd Like To F—"

"Whose dad are you fuckin' and why wasn't I informed of this." The Executioner casually sauntered in through the threshold of the doorway, looking immeasurably pleased to be fashionably late to a secret meeting of the Fomorian Army.

From inside the ventilation shaft, Evie and Kai turned identical shades of pale as the blood in their veins turned glacier-cold.

" _… Shit._ " Evie let out a long and shaky exhale.

" _I'm going to fucking kill that son of a bitch._ " Kai's hands immediately went to his sniper rifle, but there was no possibly way he could set it up in a space as small as the ventilation shaft. He took out his .357 Magnum instead.

" _We're doing recon!_ " Evie hissed and shoved Kai's hand down. " _You can shoot him later!_ "

"What could possibly waylay you into being late for an emergency meeting with the glorious Shining Shakarr, you buffoon?!" The white gnollness snarled at the Executioner, who simply smirked back arrogantly at her as he leaned against the frame of the doorway and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Honestly? I got stuck in traffic. There's too many CB's on the main roads for some reason, so I had to take the long way. I'm guessing that they want their pretty little doll back." The Executioner's head jerked over in Clodagh's direction, who shuffled closer to the radiator with frightened and tearful eyes.

"Che! Now that all of you humans are here, you undoubtedly know that there's been a setback thanks to Vehemence and Black Hammer. We have a girl hostage, but she is not the Oracle. Without the Oracle, we cannot awaken our Great Master Cichol. Stormbringer! You'll be in charge of raiding the storehouses by the Colhen docks tonight." Shakarr paced angrily across the length of the room.

Resonance and Stormbringer finally ended their obnoxious lip lock. The red-headed woman smirked smugly at Shakarr. "Finally, some _action_."

Shakarr grunted and roughly shoved off the two kids sitting on top of his desk. With twin snorts of haughtiness, Jade Fox went to perch on the arm of the couch while Phantom sidled up next to the Executioner and copied his pose.

"While those damnable Blades are distracted, Resonance and Jade Fox will focus on turning the Royal Army's golem pet, Aghlan, over onto our side. This sigil should be enough."

A fomorian mind-control sigil landed in Jade Fox's hands.

"Phantom, Executioner, you two will sneak undetected into the hospital that is holding the Oracle, and steal her away without so much as raising a single alarm. Got it?"

The Phantom snorted again. "Boss, I can do that in my sleep. Why's the old geezer hav'ta follow me?"

"Oi, watch your mouth, you lil' punk."

Shakarr growled again. "Because a human child wandering around a hospital alone is too conspicuous, that's why!"

"Hah, right, kid."

"Shut up!" The Phantom's face started to turn cherry red, his immature temper flaring up.

"And what will you have us do, Shining Shakarr?" Black Scar snarled in his own gnollish way. Everwhite snarled along with him, and then once more at the humans.

"You two, my trusted lieutenants, will accompany Black Hammer to the ritual site in The Catacombs. We must begin preparations immediately, even with all of our setbacks. Lord Glas Ghaibhleann will reward you both quite handsomely, after your tasks are done."

The two gnolls bowed their heads low, sneering at the humans when none of them followed suit, before excusing themselves and scrambling out of the room.

"Hey, when are we gonna get paid? We're not doing any of this for free, you know." Resonance slunk up from her sprawl on the couch and grabbed her spellsword with a particularly vicious gleam in her eyes. Stormbringer copied her girlfriend's actions, twirling her jagged-edged swords in lazy arcs before sheathing them across her back.

Shakarr waved a dismissive hand. "All of you, too, will be rewarded in time by Lord Glas Ghaibhleann, once Our Great Master Cichol has awakened. Your payments for this month will transfer into your accounts once we have the Oracle in our possession. Executioner, take the useless girl with you to the hospital and swap her with the Oracle. We have no use for her, otherwise."

While the others left the room grumbling at the delay of the rest of their payments yet again, the Executioner shrugged a shoulder and walked over to the young woman handcuffed to the radiator. He unhooked the cuffs from the radiator but quickly cuffed her properly this time, and then simply hauled up the squeaking woman to her feet. Shakarr scoffed at the Executioner and the captive woman from where he was standing in the doorway before leaving to attend to his own duties.

The Executioner was alone with Clodagh, now.

Taking the opportunity that had presented itself, Kai braced his weight against the metal vent. His hand clenched against the textured grip of his pistol.

" _No, don't—!_ "

The vent gave way and Kai dropped down from the ventilation shaft, his gun already raised up in mid-fall and his finger pulling the trigger—

Three bullets ricocheted off the Executioner's coat-covered back and into the concrete walls. The man's eyes widened fractionally at the sound before he twisted around and reached over his shoulder to unhook his weapon from his the harness on his back.

A massive greatsword would've nearly bisected Kai, if Hurk hadn't pulled his swing back just in time.

Clodagh had fallen to the floor, pale as a sheet of paper and trembling uncontrollably at how close she had been to being shot by an errant bullet or being sliced in half by giant sword.

"Am I dreaming? Because I swear this exact thing happened in my dream last night, but we were back in my high school's wrestling room and then it turned into that movie theater by your old apartment too—"

"You are **_not_** talking your way out of this one."

Kai surged forward with his .357 Magnum, already firing another shot when the flat of the greatsword deflected the bullet and then arced out with a defensive bash that sent Kai back a few steps.

"Hunter, this is Ceara! Where are you?! What's going on!? Reaper called in her retreat to the FOB _without you_!"

Kai didn't bother replying, instead focusing on closing the distance between Hurk and one of his bullets.

"Okay, I know how bad this looks, babe—" Hurk deflected another bullet and planted himself in front of Clodagh.

"You have _no right_ to call me that!"

Kai lashed out with a high kick that cracked right against where Hurk's fingers were gripping onto the handle of his greatsword.

"Just let me expl—"

Another deflected bullet lodged into the ceiling.

"Shut up and let me shoot you!"

Hurk promptly dropped his greatsword and lunged forward. With a well-aimed right hook (while taking a hard left to his eye socket), he managed to send the gun flying out of Kai's hand. The weapon slid to the other side of the room right by Shakarr's desk.

"Please! I'm not your en—"

Hurk's knees got kicked out from under him and he crashed to floor, taking a struggling Kai down with him.

"Stop! Fucking! Talking!"

A scrappy elbow smashed into Hurk's nose, crunching cartilage.

"I'M FUCKING SORRY FOR THIS!"

With great difficulty, Hurk reversed their positions and grappled Kai into a tight sleeper hold. With the weight of a 210-lb man purposefully bearing down on his joints and keeping Kai securely in place, it took roughly a minute until the chokehold finally worked.

When Kai slumped to the floor of the office, Hurk checked the man's breathing. Once satisfied that he was simply unconscious and no worse for wear, Hurk got up with a sigh and cracked his neck.

Then, he roughly pulled Clodagh up to her feet. He unlocked the cuffs around her wrists, but he quickly stopped her from taking them off.

"Keep these on. If you wanna get outta here alive, you're gonna have to play the part and follow everything I say to the letter. Got it?"

Clodagh nodded slowly.

"Good. Now, go pick up the gun by Shakarr's desk. Make sure the safety's on, and then put it in the left pocket of my coat."

While Clodagh scurried away to pick up the weapon, Hurk hauled Kai over his shoulder with a wheezy huff of exertion and made sure that the man's face or arms wouldn't scrape against the edges of the greatsword holstered to his back while moving. When the gun slid into the pocket of his coat, he walked out of the office with a guarded look.

"Stay in front of me, keep your eyes down. If we run into anyone, let me do the talking."

Another meek nod.

Luckily, though, they encountered no other fomors while sneaking out the back door of the _Foebellow Prairie_ – no doubt Shakarr had ordered all of his agents out to cause as much havoc as possible while his three main priorities were being dealt with. Hurk could only pray to the Goddess that he would be able to accomplish _his_ mission in time.


	4. Chapter Four

 "—ake up! I can't carry you for much longer! Wake! Up!"

There were small hands slapping at his face, and it was only after he'd bolted up into a sitting position and grabbed at the hands attacking him that he realized that he was in some dark alleyway with Clodagh.

"Where the fuck is he?"

"There's no time, we have to get back to HQ to tell the Captain everything! Can you walk? I've been carrying you for the past hour across the city!" Clodagh got to her feet, rubbing the backs of her dirty hands across her wet eyes.

Using the crumbling brick wall behind him for support, Kai pushed himself upwards until he was standing on his own two feet again, albeit unsteadily.

"What did he tell you."

"A lot, and we don't have time!" Clodagh hooked Kai's arm over her shoulder and did her very best to help the lightheaded man walk. "HQ's still half an hour away, and we have to move before _they_ find _us_! Go, go, **_go_ _!_** "

With an irritated snort, Kai pulled away from Clodagh when he found his balance after a few more steps.

They both stumbled through the front doors of HQ in just under fifteen minutes.

* * *

Kai spent a record _five minutes_ in the medical wing of CBDC before he shrugged off the doctors and nurses clamoring ineffectively around him with cries of ' _possible concussion_ ' and ' _brain damage_ ' and stormed off in search for Clodagh, who was being debriefed in the Captain's office.

"—and that's why we have to get there to stop them, right now!" Clodagh was pacing anxiously around her chair instead of sitting in it.

Captain Aodhan's face was unreadable as he processed the new information he'd been given. He barely looked up when Kai entered the room.

To the side, Ceara rapidly flipped through a sheaf of papers scrawled all over with pen ink. "Captain, what she's saying _does_ corroborate with the events in Evie's report. We _will_ have to focus our attempts at Colhen's docks tonight, and as a result we'll be stretched too thin to give much help to the Royal Army, and if they don't take our warnings about keeping Aghlan hidden seriously…"

"But we don't know _if_ we can trust him to take care of Black Hammer, Black Scar, and Everwhite. He's been working for them this entire time, for Morrighan's sake! If he's a double agent, why weren't _we_ aware of this?" Marrec, also holding a stack of papers, ran a frustrated hand through his hair. His trademark beanie was stuffed into the back pocket of his uniform trousers.

"He's a double agent?" Kai absolutely refused to let his knees weaken at such a concept. In fact, his hands curled into fists at his sides; he was more than ready to start indiscriminately punching fomorian agents in the face.

"According to Clodagh," Captain Aodhan spared a stern glance at Kai, silently ordering him to _stand the fuck down_. "The Executioner is claiming to be a long-term undercover agent of the Royal Army Intelligence. Until I get a confirmation from Commander-Director Keaghan, by law we are required to treat him as a fomorian agent."

From his corner, Marrec snorted unprofessionally. "Yeah, good luck with getting that smarmy politician to talk to you directly, Captain. There's no way he's go—"

At that moment, the **Important Red Telephone** on Captain Aodhan's desk rang shrilly.

The Captain sent Marrec a withering glare before picking up the call.

"Crimson Blades Defense Contractors, Captain Aodhan speaking… no, Sir, we do not have any of your agents in custody… yes Sir… of course we will, Sir… thank you, Sir… good day, Sir."

The phone slid back into its cradle. Captain Aodhan sat back in his chair, his hands neutrally folded on the desktop in front of him.

"If the Executioner, the Jade Fox, or the Phantom should appear on our premises, either through willful surrender or forcible capture, we are to keep up pretenses and hold them as special detainees until the Commander-Director is able to verify their statuses in person and release them from their assignments. _However_ , if we should come across the Stormbringer and Resonance, we are to treat them as fomorian conspirators, as they independent agents that have no known ties to any human intelligence or defense organization."

Marrec gaped, speechless, like a fish while Ceara shook her head in exasperation and scribbled an addendum to her notes.

"Thank Morrighan. He wasn't lying about any of it." Clodagh sat down heavily in her chair with a sigh of relief.

Kai was just about to take his cue to leave the Captain's office when the door slammed open, revealing a terrified and out-of-breath intern (Milo, their only intern from Malina).

"Captain… there'sa…guy… n'lobby… says he's… surrendered… he's brought… some… fomors…"

Kai was already past the threshold of the door the moment the intern had finished his gasped-out sentence, and Clodagh and Captain Aodhan were following right on his heels. Marrec and Ceara had to scramble to catch up to them, their piles of loose-leaf papers nearly flying out of their hands.

Kneeling in the center of the lobby with his hands above his head in the traditional pose of surrender and being held at gunpoint by fifteen different weapons, the Executioner's blood-and-ichor-splattered smirk was at odds with the three bloody, unconscious, and hogtied bodies of Black Hammer, Black Scar, and Everwhite on the ground beside him. The Executioner's coat and armor were in tatters, and his greatsword was nowhere to be seen.

When Captain Aodhan wordlessly directed a few of the Crimson Blades to detain him, the man's knowing smirk only grew larger.

"Isn't it nice to finally put a face to the name, Captain?"

"Put the fomors in the holding cells in R&D, and _him_ in the basement cells. Make sure that none of them have anything that can be used as a weapon."

The Crimson Blades roughly forced onto him several pairs of experimental magic-cancelling wrist, arm, and ankle cuffs developed by their R&D Department. The Executioner was hauled up to his feet and shuffle-dragged over to the elevator by four Blades armed with swords, but he stood his ground and refused to move another inch when he was in front of Kai.

"For a moment, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Now I see that I'm very much alive, and instead heaven's been brought to me."

Hurk's head jerked back from the force of a vicious bare-knuckled punch aimed right at his eye socket.

* * *

It was almost three in the morning when Kai and his fellow heroes returned from defending Colhen's docks from being raided by the Stormbringer (who, despite the Crimson Blades's best efforts, escaped through a hidden submarine with a few non-fatal bullet wounds). The situation at Colhen's docks was tentatively labeled as a success, as the storehouses had ultimately survived unscathed after the long battle.

They had been _extremely_ lucky on the Royal Army front. With the Reaper's debrief report, Clodagh's testimony, and the now-defected Executioner's written statements on the Fomorian Army's plans for the Oracle, the Royal Army had taken their warnings seriously and put into effect all levels of defense against possible fomorian ambushes throughout Rocheste.

The Oracle, now known to be Tieve, had been expressly ordered by the feared Commander-Director Keaghan of the Royal Army Intelligence to be hospitalized for her strained neck and three of the best Royal Police units (organized by the exceptional First Lieutenant Gwynn of 6th Precinct) had been assigned to watch over her. The Phantom ( _under the guise of a grumpy teenager visiting his hospitalized mother_ ) hadn't even gotten more than two steps towards the first floor elevator before an entire contingent of heavily-armed Royal Army agents had tackled the boy to the ground and arrested him. He had been quickly transferred over to the Crimson Blades for detainment.

Aghlan, the Royal Army's much-beloved, gentle-giant of a golem, had been successfully coaxed into temporarily moving into Ortel Castle ( _the rustic manor had belonged to the Royal Army's eccentric Chief of Human Resources Ingkells before the man had died from liver failure several years before and willed the manor to his close friend, Captain Aodhan_ ) for a few nights. A counter-ambush had been set for Resonance and Jade Fox, and the Royal Army was able to capture both agents with minimal casualties. Following orders, the Jade Fox was sent to the Crimson Blades to handle and Resonance ended up being transferred to a solitary cell in a supermax prison to await trial by the Royal Council for her crimes against mankind. Unfortunately, the Resonance escaped during transit by breaking her non-magic-binding cuffs and disappearing into the wind, leaving a gruesome trail of Royal Army corpses in her wake.

No doubt Stormbringer and Resonance would appear again sometime in the future, but for today the Crimson Blades and the Royal Army had scored a devastating blow against the Fomorian Army. If the two women were as smart as they looked, they'd be best off living out the rest of their lives on another continent as far away from the influences of the Crimson Blades, the Royal Army, or the Fomorian Army as possible.

"Ugh, I just want to drop into bed and sleep for a week." Evie had given up on walking and forced her boyfriend to carry her bridal-style, although the giant man had seemed more amused than annoyed.

"Night, guys." Karok gave a tired smile to his friends before lumbering over to his apartment with an armful of almost-asleep Evie.

"Goodnight." Fiona waited until the two disappeared into their shared apartment before turning to Kai.

"…Are you g—"

Kai abruptly turned and headed towards his apartment.

"Kai!"

The steel in Fiona's voice almost made him pause as he unlocked his door. He turned slightly to look in her direction. The door to Fiona and Lann's shared apartment was opened slightly, and a slit of dimmed light lit the planes of her face in a warm glow.

"Give him a chance to explain. We've all lied about our jobs to friends and family for years, but… it's much, much harder to lie about the matters of the heart."

"… Lann's case was different. They aren't comparable."

"True." Fiona's smile was somber and bittersweet, but nonetheless brutally honest. "But isn't **he** special enough for you to _try_ anyways?"

Kai grunted in grudging acknowledgement of Fiona's heartfelt words and entered into his dark and quiet apartment. He locked the door behind him and walked into the kitchenette, shedding his jacket and letting it drop to the tiled floor without a care. He opened the refrigerator door and squinted against the bright white light.

The refrigerator was nearly bursting from being crammed full of fresh groceries and the shelves on the door were lined with new cartons of milk and orange juice. In a corner of the lower shelf of the fridge was a large casserole dish wrapped with foil and a six-pack of Budweiser.

He hadn't gone grocery shopping _at all_ this past week, which could only mean…

A note taped on top of the wrapped casserole dish caught Kai's attention. He pulled the piece of paper off the foil.

_**Put in oven 350f 5pm** _

_**WATCH IT!** _

_**Keep warm til honeybee gets home ;D** _

Kai slammed the refrigerator door shut, braced himself against the countertop behind him, and then slowly slid down to sit on the cold tiles with his knees drawn up to his chest.

Gritting his teeth together hard enough to hurt, Kai pressed a clenched fist against his mouth as the crushing silence of his empty apartment closed in on him.


	5. Chapter Five

It took nine days, seven hours, and roughly thirty-four minutes until Hurk was informed by a wary-eyed Crimson Blade agent that within the hour, he was going to be transported to the Royal Army's Cardinal Court to speak with the Commander-Director and the Royal Council about his ' _situation_.'

Knowing that in the grand scheme of things he was a very expendable asset to the Royal Army Intelligence, Hurk let none of his anxiety show on his face as he resigned himself to patiently waiting out his last few hours of freedom in his small cell. Unbeknownst to anyone except his handlers and a few trusted members of the Royal Army Intelligence, much of the information that he'd stolen from the fomorians had the potential of exposing an alarming number of human politicians and high-ranked Royal Army officials playing large parts in a tangled web of deep corruption, flagrant bribery, and unbridled drug-trafficking that was tightly interconnected with the Fomorian Army's own criminal dealings. Among the many names that he'd uncovered, he certainly hadn't expected Royal Pontiff Laurys, Deputy Commander Riordan, and High King Ronaun himself be in league with the Fomorian Army, using ill-gained funds to finance their criminal depravities and exploiting humans and fomors alike to reap the rewards of constant warfare.

Hurk knew that once he stepped foot into the Court, the chances of him walking out alive and free was incredibly slim even with the full backing of the Commander-Director. If the information he'd gathered got into the wrong hands for even a single moment and news of it caught the ears of someone who had something to lose, he was a dead man. He hadn't seen any of the Council members names on his list, but it wasn't a stretch to assume that many of them were more than just passing acquaintances with the ones who were.

He was just one man, all too easily silenced the moment someone up high decided that he knew too much. He wasn't going to be missed if he simply disappeared one day; he had no living blood relations, his 'friends' probably want to kill him for betraying their trust, and his boyfriend…

There was no doubt in his mind that he'd fucked up beyond repair the only honest part of himself that he'd ever expressed in his life. He'd been an undercover agent for too long, swapping too many personalities and discarding endless false names like a normal person would change socks. He never, _ever_ , had the chance to simply be the most authentic version of himself…

Until he had met **_him_**.

Sighing, Hurk stood up from his tiny cell bunk and went over to the sink. He took his time with washing his face and combing his ungelled hair back the best he could with wet fingers. He could do nothing for the heavy stubble that was starting to make his face itch.

He almost didn't recognize the exhausted and bruised face in the mirror that stared back indifferently at him. The crisp maroon jumpsuit that had taken the place of his armor and coat was too tight around his chest and arms, and he felt as if there were invisible chains bound tight around him and slowly choking the last of his will to live out of him.

He never had much of that to begin with, anyways.

Standing in the center of his too-small cell with his back straight and his hands clasped behind his back, Hurk closed his eyes and focused on inhaling and exhaling slow and even breaths.

An indeterminate amount of time passed until the buzzer above the intercom sounded.

"Executioner, do not move until you are given the order to do so. There are no warning shots."

The metal grate to his cell creaked as it drew aside. Heavy footsteps sounded against concrete.

Hurk opened his eyes, and Kai was there.

His eyes immediately zeroed onto the other man's tired appearance, unconsciously filing away the deep bags underneath his ( _beautiful_ ) eyes and the ( _plush_ ) mouth pressed into a hard line.

With an indecipherable expression on his face, Kai held out a pair of heavy-duty handcuffs – the kind that a very strong fomor couldn't even break. Hurk couldn't even find the energy in himself to crack a joke at that and simply lifted up his wrists with a rueful twist of his lips.

Kai slowly, _much too slowly_ , cuffed him. Cold fingers lingered over Hurk's wrists, tracing the path of his veins, and Hurk was struck by how gently the other man was handling him. He knew he deserved _at least_ another right hook to his face, or perhaps even a knife to the gut, but not… _this_.

Hurk felt a very small, _but very painful_ , ray of hope crack open in his chest.

"Since… since you're here, do you mind if I borrow a kiss? I have a feeling that I'll need a little bit of luck, later."

A hand fisted the collar of his jumpsuit and drew him down for a passionate kiss that had him curling forward and whimpering almost inaudibly. He'd been wasting away with only terrifyingly dark thoughts for company for so long, but now he had the only person he'd ever needed or wanted to be with, even if only for a scant moment. A hand cupped the back of Hurk's head and long fingers carded through his hair.

An uncomfortable cough off to the side drew Hurk's attention back to the present and he would've broken the kiss were it not for Kai's grip on his shirt keeping him in place. The hand in his hair disentangled from the mused spikes and Hurk didn't need to turn his head to know that Kai was flipping off the poor Crimson Blade agent that was in charge of transporting him to an uncertain future.


	6. Chapter Six

With the Commander-Director's intimidating presence and a slew of damning evidence pointing towards an impending judicial review and in-depth background checks of every individual within the Royal Army and their connected political sectors, Hurk barely made it out of his ' _trial_ ' with his skin intact.

After nearly five hours of uninterrupted debate involving legal terms flying over Hurk's head, he eventually was absolved of all criminal activity he'd conducted while acting as an undercover agent for the Commander-Director, but at the cost of his position as a Royal Army Intelligence agent and a court-mandated non-disclosure agreement barring him from talking about any information he'd taken from the fomors except for a few select individuals should he need to be called upon to confirm or deny anything in future investigations into the colossal wreck that was just dumped onto their laps.

Twelve unanimous decisions, a bang of a gavel, and he was free to leave.

Upon leaving the courtroom, Commander-Director Keaghan had clapped him on the shoulder and apologized for not entirely putting everything to rights. Hurk had honestly gaped at the man – he'd done all he could for him to get him as far away from the death penalty as possible ( _he'd been a **traitor** and a **liar** , for Morrighan's sake!),_ and _he_ was the one apologizing?

Hurk turned down the offer of a ride back to Royal Army Intelligence Headquarters. He didn't have anything of actual or sentimental value in the office space he rarely used or in the dusty standard-issue quarters that he hadn't slept in for nearly three years. He didn't even care for his greatsword, which either had been retrieved and stored into the HQ's weapons locker or probably kept as some twisted trophy by some opportunistic fomor scavenging around.

Everything that ever really mattered to him could be found in a tiny, overheated apartment complex that he shared with the light of his life and their friends.

Which was why Hurk found himself hesitating outside of the door to Kai's (and his?) apartment, his fist raised up to the wood but not quite touching it.

"You're back. Did you walk all the way here in _that_?"

Hurk turned to see Fiona leaning casually against the doorframe of the apartment she shared with Lann. Her face was neither surprised nor particularly approving at his appearance.

He was still wearing the horrible maroon jumpsuit.

"Yeah. No cab would take me."

"Of course." Fiona rolled her eyes before schooling her face into a more serious look. "Are you planning to run?"

Hurk exhaled slowly, as if completely unsure. "It depends on whether or not any of you want me here, after what I've done."

"We know the truth, and we've been in the business long enough to know how to tell fact from fiction. That's enough for _us_. The real question is whether or not _you_ want to stay, and if you can live with the choices _you've_ made." Fiona stared at him with an exasperated look that basically said _why are men such idiots_ before disappearing back into her apartment.

Hurk had no decent reply to that, except to swallow hard, wipe his sweaty palms on his pants, and knock on the door.

A muffled "Unlocked!" filtered past the door.

Hurk pushed the door open and was greeted with the sight of Kai ( _wearing just loose sweatpants_ ) standing by the kitchenette counter with his .357 Magnum disassembled into pieces in front of him, along with two unopened bottles of Budweiser. The other man didn't bother to look up while in the midst of giving the parts of his pistol a much-needed deep clean.

Hurk shut the door behind him, took in a deep breath, and let the jumbled words that had been circling around in his mind for the past few hours fall out of his mouth. He was still uncertain of his standing in this relationship, even after that kiss they'd shared down in the cells. He needed to know if he was actually still welcome, or if he should start just packing his bags.

"I'll completely understand if you tell me to get out of your apartment right now and never show my face within a ten mile radius of you ever again."

Kai's hands paused for a brief second before returning to work.

Reading the hesitation as a turn for the worse, Hurk felt his insides liquefying into a wave of pure, unadulterated pain.

"Alright, I… I'll leave my keys for the apartment and my heart on the nightstand, and you can keep them. I just need the one for my bike."

The oven's timer _dinged!_ cheerily and Hurk blinked in surprise.

After a moment of silence, Kai turned to look at Hurk with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile tugging at his lips.

"Aren't you going to get that? Wouldn't want the enchiladas to burn, after all."

With a bark of genuine laughter that trailed off into a sob of complete and utter relief, Hurk staggered back against the wall with a hand pressed up against his eyes. He took a minute to compose himself, wiping the back of his hand across his wet eyes, before walking over to oven with a trembling but quickly-growing smile on his face.

"'Course not, _honeybee_."


End file.
